Feather report: Taking turns to guard the nest

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In many places in Britain you can see some rafts bobbing on a lake or a
flooded gravel pit, with a noisy swirl of white birds around them. The rafts
have been put there to attract common terns to nest on them, and they have
been remarkably successful in doing it.

Common terns, although they are mainly birds of seaside beaches, have always
nested here and there on sandbanks in rivers, and they have taken eagerly to
the rafts as an alternative. The sight of these slim, swallow-tailed birds
inland, flitting over a river or lake or poised to dive